Residential housing and much commercial building has in the past been made in the United States and in other countries with wooden supporting structures, most of it in the form of elongated beams of standard sizes in inches, such as 2.times.2, 2.times.4, 2.times.6, 2.times.8, 2.times.10, 2.times.12, 4.times.4, 4.times.6, 4.times.8, 4.times.10, and 4.times.12. Due to the decreasing supplies of wood and the corresponding increasing costs of wooden beams, attempts have been made to employ steel beams in place of wooden beams for this type of construction. Typical of such attempts are the metal beams shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,001,993; 4,058,951; 4,130,970; 4,793,113; 4,809,476; 5,157,883; and 5,222,335. While these inventions are suitable for many purposes, they are complex and costly and leave much to be desired.
It is an object of this invention to provide a novel metal wall stud. It is another object of this invention to provide a novel metal wall stud in the form of a steel channel beam with tabs at its ends to provide easy attachment to horizontal wooden and metal plates. Still other objects will become apparent from the more detailed description which follows.